Women of Valor

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BobbieRosenfeld

This web exhibit has been made possible through the generosity of Harry Stern, Zelda R. Stern and the Harry Stern Family Foundation.

During the workday, Canadian Olympic medalist Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld was a stenographer in a Toronto chocolate factory. It was only on evenings and weekends that she had time to resume her role as the "world's best girl athlete." On any given day she could be seen winning softball games before crowds of thousands, breaking national and international track records or leading an ice hockey or basketball team to a league championship. Was there any sport Rosenfeld couldn't conquer? As one author remarked, "The most efficient way to summarize Bobbie Rosenfeld's career... is to say that she was not good at swimming."

Born in 1904, Rosenfeld was known for her wise cracks as well as for her sportsmanship. Although famous as an all-around athlete, she gained the international spotlight with her achievements in track, bursting onto the scene at the 1923 Canadian National Exhibition.

By 1928 Rosenfeld was traveling to the Amsterdam Olympics for what she termed her "greatest victory." There, the small Canadian women's track team, celebrated by the press as "the matchless six," swept the events. With a gold medal for the 400 meter relay, a silver for the 100 meter, and a fifth place in the 800 meter, Rosenfeld scored more points for her country than any other athlete at the Games, male or female.

One year later, her career ground to a halt. Struck with severe arthritis, Rosenfeld was bedridden for months and afterwards confined to crutches.

In 1931 she recovered sufficiently to star on championship softball and ice hockey teams again, but a second attack in 1933 forced her to retire permanently from athletics.

Rosenfeld then moved to coaching track and softball and into the field of sports writing. Her column "Sports Reel" began its twenty year run in the Toronto Globe and Mail in 1937. First as an athlete and then as a writer, Rosenfeld helped topple traditional barriers against women's participation in sports.

Rosenfeld was honored nationally in 1950 when a press poll of sportswriters voted her Canada's Female Athlete of the Half-Century. She was among the first to be inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and her legend has carried on long past her death at the age of 65 in 1969. With the recent appearance of her portrait on a Canadian postage stamp, the tributes to her continue today.

Images

Canadian Postal Stamp

Bobbie Rosenfeld

Rosenfeld Ready for a Race

Toronto Relay Team After their First Race at the Canadian National Exhibition

A Natural Athlete

Rosenfeld was born in Dnepropetravsk,
Russia on December 28th, 1904. Her family
then immigrated to the small town of Barrie,
Ontario when she was just an infant.

As a child growing up in Barrie, she ran her
first sprint out of necessity. At a town
picnic she and a sister lost the money they
had brought to buy their meal. Luckily a race
had been organized for children, with a box
lunch as prize. Rosenfeld entered and
won.

By the time she was a teenager, Rosenfeld
had become well known locally as an
outstanding, dedicated athlete. She led her
high school basketball team at Barrie
Collegiate Institute to a League title, and
excelled in track as well as in her favorite
sport, ice hockey. Friends had even begun
calling her "Bobbie" for her short
bobbed hair, cut to stay out of the way
during competition. And while sexist opinions
on women in sports were common throughout
Rosenfeld's childhood, her family
supported and encouraged her. Brushing aside
assertions that strenuous exercise was
damaging to the feminine form, her father was
always wildly cheering from the stands at
Bobbie's games and races. When the family
moved to Toronto in 1922, Rosenfeld was ready
to make her mark on the city's growing
women's sports scene.

Notes:

Ethel Berman, Rosenfelds sister, relates
the story of Bobbies first race in Paul Patton,
"Rosenfelds Feats," Globe and Mail 15 June
1987.

On early twentieth century opinions on women in
sports, see, for example, Uriel Simri, Women at the
Olympic Games (Netanya, Israel: Wingate Institute for
Physical Education and Sport, 1979).

Pup Tent Bloomers

The year was 1923, and Rosenfeld was at
"a picnic in Beaverton, a three ring
sporting carnival. I was on a factory
girls' softball team. I had done some
running at high school in Barrie and was
pretty speedy on the bases, and the girls
said: 'Why don't you go in the 100
yard dash?'

"I said, 'Aw, what do you
mean?' I was wearing these big pup tent
bloomers and running shoes.

Well, they persuaded me, the kids on the
team, and I went in and won the race. People
crowded around, and Elwood Hughes, then
sports director of the Canadian National
Exhibition, wanted to know who I was.

"They asked, 'Do you know who you
beat?.' And I said no.

"You beat the Canadian national
champion,' and I said, 'Who's the
Canadian champion?'"

The Canadian champion was Rosa Grosse, who
became one of Rosenfeld's greatest
rivals. In 1925, Rosenfeld and Grosse shared
the world record for 100 yards at 11 seconds
flat.

Dat's My Girl

Rosenfeld ran in her first major track
meet at the 1923 Canadian National
Exhibition. This was long before the advent
of anything like women's sportswear, and
so she had, "hunted all over town for
something to wear." As she reminisced,
"I finished wearing my brothers swimming
trunks, dad's socks and a gym jersey. I
must have looked hideous and don't you
dare drag out any of those old
photos."

But despite her wishes, here is a
photograph of her triumph in the 100 meter
sprint, awkward costume and all. Tom
Eck's famous Chicago Flyers had arrived
in Toronto expecting to sweep the event with
a lineup that included world record holder
Helen Filkey. Canadian record holder Rosa
Grosse was running as well, adding further
fierce competition. When Rosenfeld snatched
first place from both Filkey and Grosse, she
gained instant fame.

Rosenfeld later recalled gazing up from the
finish line to find her father sitting on the
stadium fence, banging on a piece of wood
he'd picked up, and shouting:
'Dat's my girl,
Fannie.'"

And by the way—that evening, after the race,
Bobbie stopped by Sunnyside Park to play
softball for her team Hinde and Dauche and
win the city championship.

Notes:

Quotes in the first paragraph are from Bob
Pennington, Column, Toronto Telegram 3 Dec. 1966.

Super Woman Athlete

A decade's worth of newspaper's
sports sections are full of references to
Rosenfeld, "undoubtedly the greatest
all-around woman athlete in the world,"
and her "vast army of admirers."
Whether "the super woman athlete"
was playing defense for the Lakesides
basketball squad, center for the North
Toronto Ladies ice hockey team or short stop
for the Hinde and Dauche softball club,
Rosenfeld led them all to championships again
and again. Just one example, from 1931:
"Besides managing the [Maple Leafs
softball] team, she played first base, and
her fielding, hitting and 'fight'
brought the Leafs from the cellar to the
championship."

In 1924 she even won the Toronto Ladies
Grass Courts tennis championship.

Constance Hennessey, one of the
founding members of the Toronto Ladies
Athletic Club, remembered Rosenfeld as,
"not big, perhaps five-foot-five. She
didn't look powerful but she was wiry and
quick. Above all she was aggressive, very
aggressive physically. No, I don't mean
that she made a lot of noise or had a
belligerent manner. She simply went after
everything with full force....She was just
the complete athlete and I am certain she
would have been good at any sport. Certainly,
she was as good as one could see in track and
field, hockey, basketball and softball.

Or, more simply, in the words of one
historian: "If any single individual
epitomized women's sport in the
1920's, she did."

Controversy at the Finish Line

Historian Ron Hotchkiss Narrates Footage of the 100 Meter Race

For the Canadians, the 100 meter race was
marked by disappointment. Three Toronto
women—Myrtle Cook, Ethel Smith and
Rosenfeld—had made it to the finals. But
after two false starts disqualified Cook,
Rosenfeld and Smith watched as their teammate
collapsed on the sideline in tears. Tension
grew after another false start disqualified a
German runner. Finally the gun went off and
the race was on.

With Rosenfeld and Smith starting cautious
after all the confusion, Elizabeth Robinson
of the United States pushed out in front.
Then, as one sportswriter put it, Rosenfeld,
"whose courage has never been
questioned, rallied strongly and raced down
the stretch probably faster than any woman
ever traveled in this world." She
crossed the tape so close to Robinson that
the judges were uncertain who had placed
first.

In the end, Robinson was awarded the gold,
but coach Alexandrine Gibb wasn't alone
in her opinion that, "Bobbie Rosenfeld
won." She wrote, "The five judges
at the finish were each picking one position.
And both the judge who picked first and the
judge who picked second chose Betty Robinson,
of the United States. Ethel Smith was
undoubtedly third. Then where was Bobbie
Rosenfeld? In my opinion and that of a number
of others at the finish, she either won or it
was a dead heat." Unfortunately for
Rosenfeld, a silver medal would have to
do.

Notes:

The quote "whose courage has never been
questioned" is from M.J. Rodden, "Scanning the Sport
Field," Globe and Mail 1 August 1928: 10.

Alexandrine Gibbs quote from her article
"Canada at the Olympics," MacLeans Magazine 1
October 1928.

For more on the 100 meter race, see Ron Hotchkiss,
"The Matchless Six," The Beaver Oct.-Nov. 1993, 35-7.

No Finer Deed

Rosenfeld had never trained for the
Olympic 800 meter event. She was entered into
the race only to encourage teammate Jean
Thompson. The youngest member of the
"matchless six," seventeen-year-old
Thompson had spent the week before the Games
resting an injured leg, and team officials
worried that this had lowered her
morale.

Thompson started the race strong, but after
being passed and jostled by a few of the
runners she dropped from second to fourth
place and was starting to falter. Rosenfeld,
running in ninth, sprinted to draw even with
her, and then coaxed Thompson the rest of the
way to the finish line.

Many watching this performance realized that
Rosenfeld could have continued her push
forward and won another medal. Instead she,
"stayed at Jean's shoulder to the
finish and then let Jean finish fourth,
taking fifth for herself." As the team
manager Alexandrine Gibb remembered it,
"Bobbie Rosenfeld's sportsmanship in
this event was one of the high spots of the
games....In the annals of women's
athletics, there is no finer deed than
this."

Notes:

Quotes are from Alexandrine Gibb, "Canada at
the Olympics," MacLeans Magazine 1 October
1928.

For more on the 800 meter race, see Ron Hotchkiss,
"The Matchless Six," The Beaver Oct.-Nov. 1993,
33-4.

Champions

Historian Ron Hotchkiss Narrates Footage of the Relay Up Through the Third Leg of the Race Run by Jane Bell

On the final day of the Olympic track and
field games, Bobbie Rosenfeld, Ethel Smith,
Jane Bell and Myrtle Cook took their places
out on the field for the 400 meter relay.
After the disappointments of the 100 meter
race, with Myrtle Cook disqualified for false
starts and Rosenfeld possibly robbed of her
gold, the pressure was high. Still, Smith
remembered, "We all felt we were going
to win."

Rosenfeld was the
"lead-off girl," and by the time
she passed the baton, they were running
first. With Smith speeding "like one
possessed" and Bell on the third leg
sprinting "the race of her life,"
the women had a three yard lead as anchor
Myrtle Cook prepared for the hand-off.
"The pass between Myrtle and Jane was
nearly a flop," remembered coach
Alexandrine Gibb.

"It was only when Miss Cook had
nearly reached the line at which she must
have the baton in her possession that Jane
Bell reached her- Myrtle Cook was running at
top speed...a fraction of a second later it
would have been a catastrophe..."
Instead it was a
victory as Cook raced ahead and increased
the Canadians' lead. When she crossed the
finish line, the relay team had set a new
world record and won the gold.

Historian Ron Hotchkiss Narrates Footage of the Relay's Final Leg, Run by Myrtle Cook

All quotes in second paragraph, as well as the
account of the race, are from Alexandrine Gibb, "Canada at
the Olympics," MacLeans Magazine 1 October
1928.

Crashing the "Sacred Sanctum"

"Athletic maids to arms!...We are
taking up the sword, and high time it is, in
defense of our so-called athletic bodies to
give the lie to those pen flourishers who
depict us not as paragons of feminine
physique, beauty and health, but rather as
Amazons and ugly ducklings all because we
have become sports-minded...

"No longer are we athletes the pretty
maids of yesteryear. Our perfect 36's are
being ruined, our features are becoming quite
'Frankensteinish,' shout these
croquet and pat-ball advocators, all because
we are no longer satisfied with being just a
'rib of Adam', but we have elected to
hurl the discus, throw the javelin, run and
jump as 'Adam' does....

"The modern girl is a better worker and
a happier woman by reason of the healthy
pleasure she takes in tennis, hockey,
lacrosse, swimming, running, jumping and
other sports. The sacrifices which girls have
to make to keep themselves fit are all for
the good. They work better because they play
better. When one sees the well-filled playing
fields today, one has no fear for the future
of Canadian womanhood....

"The girl athletes have successfully
crashed the sacred sanctum of men's
sports realms. The sporting public likes them
and wants them...

"Would all this ballyhoo of
leathery-limbs, flat chests, physical injury,
be a direct result of male resentment to the
female intrusion of their athletic circle?
Can it be that they just 'can't take
it?'"

Lamp Shades and Ribbon

While Rosenfeld may have been Canada's
most famous female athlete in her day, she
still needed to work at the Patterson
Chocolate Factory to pay her bills. As her
sister commented, "If Bobbie were alive
today she'd be a millionaire, with all
the endorsements athletes have now. Instead
she had lots of hatboxes. Not luggage.
Hatboxes.

Rosenfeld looked back on this fact with
humor. "We gals were babes in the wood
then and clung to that old cliche about
sports for sports sake," she wrote in
1950. "After I came back from the
Olympics, Dr. Saul Simon decided to arrange a
series of exhibition races.... My first race
was in my hometown of Barrie. When I
arrived...the officials were most apologetic.
No girl racers had answered the challenge,
but would I run against the boys? I did, and
won with the help of a three-yard handicap.
My prize—a lamp shade and a yard of moire
ribbon. I shuddered at the thought of
collecting, maybe, another half dozen lamp
shades and yards more of moire, so right
there and then I persuaded the doc to cancel
the rest of the tour."

Sports Reel

The only woman on the Globe and
Mail sports staff, Rosenfeld was one of
a small but prominent group of female
sportswriters across the country. Other
Canadian columnists included old friends like
fellow runner Myrtle Cook and Alexandrine
Gibb, coach of the 1928 Olympic track
team.

For eighteen years, Rosenfeld covered
women's sports with wit and
"refreshing candor." She celebrated
female pioneers in everything from bowling to
rodeo riding, and wrote with authority on
softball, basketball, hockey, track- all the
fields she had once dominated. Along the way
she mocked herself and most everyone else,
recommended taffy and orange juice to cure
hangovers, and occasionally reminisced about
the golden age of girls sports, "when
the Cook and the Rosenfeld held sway... (kind
of snooty, eh!)"

But perhaps more importantly, Rosenfeld used
her column to advocate for women athletes.
She debunked the sexist attacks that insisted
women looked, "better with a frying pan
than a tennis racquet." She encouraged
girl's sports in the schools, asserting
that, "competition when properly
organized and directed has a contribution to
make to the education of women."
Throughout the years, Rosenfeld continued to
remind a too-often forgetful public that
girls were "in sports for
good."

Timeline

Wins first trophy at Great War Veterans Association Track Meet; family moves to Toronto; begins work at Patterson Chocolate factory and joins their company sponsored Pats Athletic Club

1923

Gains international fame at the Canadian National Exhibition by defeating the world record holder in the 100 meter dash; earns reputation as the world's greatest female all-around athlete as she excels on championship basketball, hockey and softball teams over the next ten years

1924

Wins Toronto Ladies Grass Court Tennis title

1925

Wins shot put, the 220 yard dash, long jump, 120 yard low hurdles and discus, and places second at javelin and the 100 yard dash all in just one day at the Ontario Ladies Track and Field Points Championship

1928

Leads her team to a gold medal in the 400 meter relay, wins a silver medal for the 100 meter dash, and runs fifth in the 800 meter, a race for which she had not even trained, at the first Olympic games to admit women to track and field competition

1929

Struck suddenly by severe arthritis, she is bedridden for 8 months, then forced to use crutches for a year

1931

Returns to hockey and softball upon recovering; leads the league in home runs and is voted the outstanding woman hockey player in Ontario

1933

Forced to retire from sports after a second attack of arthritis at the age of only 29; coaches track and softball; works as a sports columnist for the Montreal Herald

1937

Begins almost 20 years of writing the column "Sports Reel" for the Toronto Globe and Mail; uses her column to advocate for women in athletics as well as covering a wide range of sports

1949

Among the first inductees into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame at its opening